Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1925)

Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section Your hair easily kept smooth and shaped . . . With this you can achieve any of the new severe styles PERHAPS you think your hair is too fluffy ever to lie satin-smooth. Or so wiry it can't adapt itself to the new styles. But you can easily learn to manage your hair today. Stacomb gently shapes and trains the most rebellious locks. The least touch of Stacomb in the morning shapes your latest bob the right way and keeps it right all day. With Stacomb, long hair can be combed straight back, yet never get straggly and untidy. And with Stacomb you know your hair will never be greasy as the old pomades made it. Nor brittle and lifeless as water used to leave it. Thousands of women have found Stacomb the only easy way to attain just the particular smooth effect they want. Suzanne Powers, who played last season in "Tarnish," "The Potters," and "The Bluebird," says: " Women who have adopted the new severely plain mode in hairdressing find in Stacomb a delightful and effective aid. Very few women can achieve this desired effect without it." Use Stacomb freely to keep your hair just the way you want it. It is actually beneficial , and tends to prevent dandruff. In jars and tubes (or the new liquid Stacomb). At all drug and department stores. Readers in Canada should address Standard Laboratories. Ltd., 727 King Street, West, Toronto, Ont. Dept.M-18. Sfaccmtr KEEPS THE HAIR IN PLACE Free Offer JM Standard Laboratories, Inc. Dept.M-18 113 West 18th Street, New York City Please send me, free of charge, a generous sample tube of Stacomb. Name . . Address Mann; Pal M alone, Jackie Morgan; Morna M alone, Dorothy Brock; Cesare Martinelli, 1). I Mil oras; Mrs. Shaitghnessy, Carrie Clark Ward; Mr. Shaughnessy, C. F. Roark; Lieut. Celeslini, Albert Prisco; Benedetto., Martha Mattox. "GOLD HEELS"— Fox.— Story by Henry M. Blossom, Jr. Scenario by John Stony Directed by W. S. Van Dyke. The cast: Checkers, Robert Agnew; Pert Barlow, Pegge. Shaw; Push Miller, Lucien Littlefield; Kendall. Jr., William Norton Bailey; Mr. Barlow, Carl Stockdale; Kendall, Sr., Ered Butler; Tote Harry Tracy; Constable, James Douglas; Aunt, Winifred Landis; Sadie, Katherine Craig; Bobby, Buck Black; Little Jane, Betty Hisle. " SUPER-SPEED " — Rayart. — Story' by John Wesley Grey and Henry Roberts Symonds. Scenario by John Wesley Grey and Henry Robert Symonds. Directed by Albert Rogell. The cast: Patrick O'Farrell, Reed Howes; Estelle Knight, Mildred Harris; Warner Knight, Charles Clary; Stanton Wade, Sheldon Lewis; Dad Perkins, George Williams; Zeke, Martin Turner. "JIMMIE'S MILLIONS"— F. B. O.— From the story by John Moroso. Adapted by Frank Howard Clark. Directed by James P. Hogan. The cast: Jimmy Wicherly, Richard Talmadge; Susan Jane Montague, Betty Francisco; Luther Ball, Charles Clary; John Saunders, Brinsley Shaw; William Johnson, Dick Sutherland; Patience Delavan, Ina Anson; Speck Donnelly, Lee Moran; Mickey Flannagan, Wade Boteler. "THE ARIZONA ROMEO"— Fox.— Story by Charles Kenyon. Scenario by Edmund Mortimer. Directed by Edmund Mortimer. The cast: Tom Long, Buck Jones; Sylvia Wayne, Lucy Fox; Richard Barr, Maine Geary; Sam Barr, Thomas R. Mills; John Wayne, Hardee Kirkland; Mary, Marcella Daly; Martha, Lydia Yeamans; The Sheriff, Harvey Clark; Telegraph Operator, Hank Mann. "FIFTH AVENUE MODELS" — Universal.— Story by Muriel Hine. Adapted by Olga Printzlau. Directed by Svend Gade. The cast: Isoel Ludant, Mary Philbin; Francis Doran, Norman Kerry; Joseph Ludant, Jo-^ef Swickard; Abel Von Groot, William Conklin; Tory Serecold, Rosemary Theby; Mme. Suze, Rose Dione; Art Salesman, Robert Brower; Maid, Helen Lynch; Rosalie, Betty Francisco; Van dcr Frift, George B. Williams; Crook, Jean Hersholt; Cook's Henchman, Mike Donlin; Mr. Fish, Bob McKenzie; Mrs. Fish, Ruth Stonehouse; Mrs. Fish's Lover, Lee Moran. Advice to Scenario Writers By One of Them TAMES A. CREELMAN, who is in the J scenario department of Famous Players Lasky, has written a sprightly essay on "How to Keep Out of the Movies," which appeared in The Bookman recently. Jim has a lightsome touch but, after quite a bit of joshing, he gave some very sound advice to wouldbe scenarists. "Among the "do's" and "don'ts" were the following: "Of course unpublished stories are fold. The scenario mail of the average star unit is about five thousands scripts a year. "Every two or three years one of these is purchased. "The chance of an inexperienced outsider is somewhere around i to 100,000 or less. "The trouble with most original stories is that approximately a twentieth of the time spent upon a novel or play is put into them. They are indifferently conceived, faultily constructed and in style faintly reminiscent of English Bi. "The safest type of story to write — because it is most in demand — is an emotional character story, with a strongly emphasized romantic interest. The most unsafe is comedy. CHARACTER is the most essentia] element. Many years ago the stage discovered that personalities are what make plots bearal le. "The movies have only begun to discern this principle. "In the old days, 'way back in 1014 A. D., the plot was the thing. "The plot people existed merely as mathematical figures. "Movies are painted in strokes as broad as they are short. You can, as a rule, describe only one or two sides of a character and you'll have mighty little footage to do even that. So avoid involved psychology. Sound one tonic character note. "All the rest must be overtones— small idiosyncrasies of manner. "A train wreck means little in itself. When your best friend is aboard, a true dramatic 'kick' is experienced. "The days have gone when any actor ■ advertisement in niOTOPi.AY MAGAZINE is guaranteed. might be established as a superman simnly by depicting him untying the tin can from the tail of a puppy. "Avoid complicated plots. The best story idea can be told in a paragraph or so — although that is not the best way to tell it. "Elaborate detail, but not plot. Griffith's best pictures are examples of the simplified plot — compact and forceful as a weapon. "Romantic interest is a necessity of life, in so far as full length feature pictures are concerned. "Try to master any impulse to write fantasy, tragedy, 'Continental stuff' (to wit, too subtle satire and oversophisticated drama), censorable material (Pennsylvania is an eight per cent territory), slapstick comedies, morbidity, costume periods, epics of the ages which involve million dollar settings, and stories constructed of scenic and character material so unfamiliar to Mrs. Minnie Sperg, saleslady of the Des Moines Maison Elite, that she cannot enter into the spirit of the thing. "Very often a story is bought parti}' for its title value. "A good main title is worth about $30,000 up in gross sales value. "T"\ONT be afraid to write the impossi" le. *~ 'The camera has been developed to <u h an extent that it can, if necessary, reproduce any scene which Freud can conjure up. "It is well to avoid using great numbers of people. "In writing your originals, write well. "Don't be self-conscious about an old plot. They're nearly all old. "It is the fresh treatment that counts, as it does in every other form of entertainment or art. " Gags, by the way, are very much a part of screen writing. "A gag is just what you think it is — a bit of business which brings a laugh or gasp or, God willing, a tear. "And now that you know all about it, sit right down and do your story in about ten to twenty episodes — like the acts of a play, you know, only you fade in and out on them instead of curtaining — without any use of technical movie terms whatsoever."